Shadowclub & Tombstone Pete at Down South Food Bar

Posted on: November 29, 2011

Thurs 24 November 2011

In spite of my efforts to go to bed early and be well rested before Synergy, I managed to stay up late every night of last week. Monday to Wednesday’s lack of sleep was avoidable but there was nothing I could do about Thursday – LMG’s exclusive Shadowclub gig was pretty much unmissable.

It was my first time at Down South Food Bar, which seems to be fast establishing a reputation for cool bluesy gigs. It was also my first time seeing opening act, Tombstone Pete.

He’d recently been awarded the opening slot at the LMG stage at Synergy for winning the Down South Jack Off competition and, watching him play, it’s not hard to see why – the guy has some serious guitar-playing skills. I don’t think I could listen extensively to his music, but watching him perform as a one-man-band was very entertaining. There was even a slight element of mystery in the form of one black and rather smart shoe on the side of the stage. Its presence was later explained when it was used on some sort of pedal (a small brown thing, I dunno, another little mystery) after Pete, barefoot, introduced one song as needing ‘a shoe’…

Last time I saw Shadowclub I really enjoyed them, and was impressed not only by their music, but by their ridiculously cool presence. It’s like they just ooze cool. While it couldn’t really be called semi-acoustic, their set was pretty stripped down (drummer Isaac Klawansky was down to just a bass drum and occasionally a tambourine) and laid-back. I do prefer their ‘full’ sound but thought this arrangement worked well enough and suited the vibe of the venue. I also thought it was cool that Louis Roux’s bass seemed to stand out more, I love bass so am all for giving it more prominence.

Unsurprisingly, at the end of their set, the crowd demanded an encore. Frontman Jacques Moolman announced that he either needed a new guitar string or a new guitar. After joking that we could either wait for the former (which would take 3 hours) or the latter (3 months), the band were back on the stage 10 minutes later for their encore and only promises of their Synergy performance the next night could dissuade the crowd from demanding even more after that.